Internet and its related customer services has had an enormous break through during the last decade. Even though the early stages of what has become the Internet of today were almost unknown only ten years ago, at least among ordinary technically oriented people, the Internet of today is virtually known to everyone in the so-called industrialised world. Everyday, the number of people practising and using the Internet is increasing. Many people use it professionally, such as use in offices and laboratories, but also other kinds of use increases rapidly, such as daily use in people's residences.
Customer services developed that are mainly designed for and are well-adapted to new possibilities governed by the Internet have increased at correspondingly fast pace. As a consequence of the increasing possibilities provided by higher data transmission rates and the enhanced image quality and even on-line video over the Internet, to mention just two conceivable applications among many others, a great demand for higher transmission rates has grown among by potential customers, i.e. future subscribers, which has led to a new and currently developing market including significant business opportunities for several involved parties. The customers may for instance be multimedia interested people who want to be able to download real time video or transfer large amounts of data, such as very high resolution images, music files, etc, to and from computers in their homes. A market challenge it to be able to provide high transmission access to the Internet for every customer who is or might become interested.
In order to provide all of these customers with connections supporting very high transmission rates, preferably bi-directional transmission exceeding 2 Mbit per second, which is sometimes called broadband access according to one of a plurality of definitions, a technique allowing for non-problematic mass-installation is required. Preferably, customers who receive and perhaps immediately accept an offer from a provider of high speed transmission access should be able to receive the high speed access to the Internet within a very short period of time. Otherwise customers will become unsatisfied and in some cases, they will even have a legal right to cancel the agreement of having accepted the high speed transmission offer, or renegotiate the terms of the agreement.
Prior art, like for instance the European patent application PE 0 981 242 A1, discloses a shared multi-drop ADSL modem allowing for simultaneous connections to at least two local loops. Two subscribing users may share one single ADSL modem, whereby lower costs associated with the implementation of ADSL modems can be achieved.
However, the prior art does not disclose a satisfactory solution to the problem of installing and activating connections for a great number of subscribers wanting access to the Internet at high transmission rates, so-called broadband, in a short period of time. Moreover, to use only a minimum of staff at convenient working hours is an absolute prerequisite not only for enabling commercial success when mass-connecting and activating the subscribing customers. Perhaps the most serious drawback associated with prior art is that mass-connection of customers having accepted an agreement of provision of high speed Internet access will take time and hence be a serious bottleneck when a huge number of subscribers simultaneously are about to get connected and activated and most subscribers do not accept having to wait.